Bannon on His 'Revolution': Never Mind

Donald Trump's former chief campaign strategist Steve Bannon promised to destroy the Republican establishment in order to advance the president's agenda. To that end, he backed several primary candidates running against establishment politicians, most notably, Alabama's Roy Moore. Moore lost, almost all of Bannon's other candidates lost, and he slipped into irrelevance.

But you can't keep Bannon down. He told the New York Times that the time was now to embrace the establishment; "the anti-establishment thing is kind of a luxury we can’t afford right now," he said.

“People are starting to realize that the anti-establishment thing is kind of a luxury we can’t afford right now,” said Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s former chief strategist who six months ago said it was his objective to see Mr. McConnell removed as the Senate Republican leader.

That effort has been put on hold. And Mr. Bannon’s rebellion has considerably smaller ambitions than it did six months ago, when he was trying to recruit challengers to every Republican incumbent senator up for re-election this year, with the exception of Ted Cruz of Texas.

Of those Mr. Bannon worked most closely with, just two are still running: Mr. McDaniel and Kelli Ward in Arizona, who is competing in a three-way primary for the seat that opened up after Senator Jeff Flake announced his retirement.